“Have all other less harmful possibilities been explored?”

Editorial

The quote above is from a letter protesting about a library closure in my home town of Newport in South Wales. It sums up to me what is happening in threatened libraries for the last few years, in that there are a whole pile of possibilities to look at before closing a building. One of these options, of course – running it with volunteers – is at once the most controversial and the most common. Others include less books, less staff, less opening hours, less everything in fact, except charges and self-service machines. Another is co-location with others services. Another is passing the running of libraries to another organisation such as a Trust or (whisper it quietly) a private company. I must make a flowchart some day …

Boyd Tonkin – Independent. Criticises DCMS decision to move control of PLR unit from the North to London “The office stays up north but, to save £750,000 over 10 years, control shifts to WC1. So much for decentralisation.” … also points out the confusion e-books cause with official statistics.

Episode 93 – This Week in Libraries. “We know that the fight against cancer is a totally different issue than the fight to save libraries, but imagine that we could empower our own ambassadors, friends of the libraries or volunteers in the right way what this could mean.”

How do you value a library? – Fabian Society / Dan Jarvis MP. “it is important to remind ourselves that any compelling vision for the society we want to see cannot just be defined in narrow economic terms.”

“… while there are many interested bodies there is no executive for the UK’s public library service, managing strategy, policy and investment nationally. No mayor, tsar or chief executive. No board or trustees. From where I sit, in a commercial business with cultural aims, this makes creating a bold, empowered future for libraries close to impossible. It also means that any vision has to be affordable to local authorities that already face extremely difficult budget decisions.” Stephen Page, Lend an Ear on the True Challenge Facing Libraries – Thought Fox. Panel member of e-lending review identifies key problem to public libraries as being the division of running libraries into 151 different authorities. Calls e-lending “a sideshow”.

Peter Murphy library reading group tour announced – Reading Agency / Beattie’s Book Blog. National charity The Reading Agency’s Reading Partners consortium got libraries to “‘bid‘ for Peter Murphy to come and answer questions from local book groups and read to them from his latest novel. The resulting tour by Peter begins at London’s Pimlico Library on 9 April, then taking in Cambridge, Nottingham and Shrewsbury. “

That’s a big box of books! Library made out of shipping containers opens its doors in Indonesia– Mail (Indonesia). “A unique library has been constructed from seven creatively-adapted shipping containers in Batu, Indonesia. The sturdy shipping containers have travelled the world in their previous incarnation, but now will be firmly on dry land as a permanent local landmark. The Amin Library has a collection of 6,000 books that local residents can read for free in the colourful new building.” Some amazing pictures.

Barnet – Concerns over Finchley library sell-off– Barnet Today. “Council has been accused of “short-term thinking” after revealing that it plans to sell off the Church End Library building and move the service into a Finchley housing development. The council is set to dispose of the building, in Hendon Lane, Finchley, after operations are moved into a rented, purpose-built library on the bottom two floors of Gateway House, in Regents Park Road.”

Camden –Town Hall faces criticism over books ‘giveaway’ from axed library– Camden New Journal. “Regent’s Park branch library closes it doors this week after nearly 50 years, prompting users to accuse the Town Hall of cutting a vital service in an area that relies heavily on the branch for books, computer services and as a place to meet.” … “The branch will be run by the Citizens Advice Bureau and used for computers, with no books available.”

Highland – Good news for library web-users – John O’Groats Journal. “High Life Highland, which runs all of Highland Council’s libraries, have carried out a £200,000 programme to replace all their computers and upgrade their systems.”

Hull – Anlaby Park library given two month reprieve – BBC. “The authority said it decided to leave the library open until the end of May after listening to residents’ concerns. Campaigners, who protested against the closure and held a demonstration outside the council’s Guildhall, have been invited to run the library.”

Newport – Hands off our city libraries – South Wales Argus / Letters. “Before this ill-advised short-term attempt at a solution to a long-term problem is implemented, have all other less harmful possibilities been explored?” [This should be a required question for all considering closures – Ed.]

Sheffield – Library closure petition debate– Star. “councillors are to debate a 10,000 signature petition calling for a rethink on library closure plans. Up to 14 of 27 community libraries in Sheffield could be closed unless community groups or other organisations can be found to run them, as part of £50 million of budget cuts in 2013/14.”

Sheffield – 10,000-name petition triggers Debate on city libraries– Sheffield Telegraph. “Any petition with more than 5,000 name triggers a debate in full council, and the next is on Wednesday. Local Lib Dem leader Shaffaq Mohammed said: “The response from communities across Sheffield has been overwhelming. Local people know difficult decisions need to be taken but that does not excuse Labour’s plan to take an axe to our local libraries.”

Sheffield – Why our libraries are so important – Star. “Our library is the heart of our community, we simply have nothing else. There are a lot of people living in Totley who are unemployed or are coping with bringing up young families in these difficult economic times. We also have a large elderly population. Many of them use our library with its computer facilities”

“It is a joy to see so many mums and dads bringing their children to the library and it is such an important part of a child’s life to be introduced to the world of books. I found some of Mr Drury’s comments to be sweeping and dismissive and without the knowledge of how very important our libraries are to us. Our library is the jewel in our crown.”

Wolverhampton – Up to 49 jobs at risk in Wolverhampton libraries shake-up – Express & Star. “Out of the 139 current full and part-time jobs across Wolverhampton’s libraries, 49 will vanish, although 23 new jobs will be created, meaning 26 will definitely go.”. Hopefully, no compulsory redundancies. “Tasks currently carried out at individual libraries – such as buying in books – will be done by a new separate unit. More self-service machines will also be introduced and council service City Direct will now take library phone calls.”

This entry was posted by Ian Anstice on April 1, 2013 at 9:37 pm, and is filed under Uncategorized. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

It’s a borderline decision this one. The blog, Barnet Bugle, above casts serious doubts on it and – although it is just a blog – produces enough evidence for me to consider it “under threat” at the moment, I will keep an eye on developments and be more than happy to remove it when further news confirms it is a move rather than anything else.

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Numbers

From 1st April 2017 to end of March 2018, CIPFA reported 127 libraries lost. Since 1st April 2016 to end of March 2017. CIPFA reported 105 libraries closed, bringing the total to 3745 branches. 2015 to end of March 2016: CIPFA reported 121 libraries closed, bringing the total to 3850 libraries. In 2014/15 there was a decline of 106 public libraries, (with 260 static libraries were put under threat of closure/passing to volunteers. 9 mobile libraries under threat in the same period). .

There were 4023 in 2013/14, 4482 in 2009/10 and 4622 in 2003/4. CIpfa have calculated that 121 service points lost in 2015/16, 106 service points were lost in 2014/15, 49 were lost in 2013/14, 74 were lost in 2012/13, 201 in 2011/12, 33 in 2010/11.

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The complete list is on "Tally by Local Authority" page as are other changes to budgets such as cuts to hours, bookfund and staffing. ....
For a list of new and refurbished buildings see this page,

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